Our External Competitions Secretary, Lauren Poussard, reports:

On Sunday, the 28th of November, we participated in the 19th Annual Pre-Visions Inter-Club competition, which was hosted by the XRR Photographic Society, with 18 participating clubs. The competition covers both prints and slides, each club submits 6 of each. Prints are submitted weeks in advance so that the prints judge can pre-judge them all. The scores are posted in the programme, with the exception of 2 images per club. These images have been photographed in their mounts and are projected on the night so that the judge can discuss them. They are not necessarily the 20s - but they have something of merit the judge would like to speak about, and then he reveals his score for them. Held and projected for discussion were Paul's and Lauren's prints.

Prints

"Chatting on the concourse"	Micki Aston	18
"Ma petite miette"	Lauren Poussard	18
"Dark Side of the Spoon"	Chris Small	14
"Girl on the Stairs"	Alan Cross	16
"Stephen Farr 2"	Derek Reay	16
"Remember Them" BEST MONOCHROME	Paul Mitchell	20
	TOTAL	102

Overall in prints, Windsor tied for a respectable 8th place out of 18 clubs, and when asked to nominate the best in show, the judge, David Mendus, chose two: one colour and one monochrome. Paul's "Remember Them" was deemed "head and shoulders above the rest". The judge commented that he had seen similar images many times in the past, but none of them came close to the quality and imagery of Paul's. "The photographer clearly knew what he was doing, what he wanted..." He couldn't say enough of Paul's print.

Slides

"Relaxing"	Jenny Downing	17
"Lilac Breasted Roller"	David Wessely	20
"Flower Head"	Paul Mitchell	16
"Number 32"	Paul Mitchell	18
"Stourhead Colours"	Micki Aston	19
"Mono Lake"	Micki Aston	16
	TOTAL	106

Judging slides was Ron Tear, MPAGB, LRPS, BPE***, PSA**. He had his work cut out for him for the afternoon with over 100 slides to judge, and the level of quality - especially in the natural history category - was exceptional. David once again held it together for us, scoring a 20 for his gorgeous "Lilac Breasted Roller". Ron was clearly a photographer with a penchant for natural history, and could appreciate just how difficult it would be to photograph such a bird! Overall in slides, we did a bit better, tying for a satisfying 5th place out of 18 clubs.
Micki and I attended the event, which began at 2pm and judging didn't finish until 6pm! (there was an optional evening event as well, but we had to get home!) It was a fabulous afternoon of photography, and I have to apologize for my lack of bulletin regarding the event. I have been having electrical problems in my studio and my system crashed on me on a day I was sending a bunch of e-mails out, including the info on this event - I found it just on Friday in my outbox!
The next external competition is Monday the 17th of January, when we will be hosting the 2nd leg of the CACC Rosebowl, which we are currently leading! Being on a club meeting night, I hope everyone attends to support the club, and to show all the other camera clubs what a fantastic membership we have!

More information on Pre-Visions can be found on www.xrrphoto.org.uk

Posted 30 November 2004

Round One of the 'CACC Rose Bowl' competition was held on Tuesday the 16th of November and was hosted by St. Albans P.S. Participating in Round One were Windsor P.S., St. Albans P.S, Aylesbury C.C and Wallingford P.S.
Representing WPS were the slides of members Micki Aston, David Wessely, Alan Cross, Martin Harland, Paul Mitchell and Jenny Downing. Micki, David and Lauren attended the competition.
Each club was allowed 15 slides for a total of 60 on the night, which were judged by Paul de Sylva.
We did fantastically throughout, leading at one point by 13 points! However, towards the end, the competition got tighter, and we won by a mere 1 point! The top 3 slides of the evening were awarded 20 points - and Windsor scored 2 of them! Alan Cross's "In The Spotlight", and David Wessely's "Springboks in Long Grass". The competition rules allow just two of the top scorers to receive a 'star' rating - and these went to the two Windsor entries!
The next round of the Rose Bowl will be held in Windsor on Monday 17th January, and we will be competing against Chalfont & Gerrards X CC, Park Street CC and Maidenhead CC.

Final Results for Round One:

Windsor P.S.	247 **
St. Albans P.S.	246
Aylesbury C.C.	228
Wallingford P.S.	235

See the top scorers HERE
See the score sheet HERE

Posted 26 November 2004

The WPS this year has again contributed to the Windsor Fringe Festival. To quote from the event promotion: "The Windsor Photographic Society again presents a display which shows that photography can be fun and different." We have put on show, at The Surgery, 21 Sheet Street, a mosaic of 462 photographs depicting diverse facets of, and 'things seen' in, Windsor and the immediate area. The whole magnificent mosaic measures 3.3 metres by 1.4 metres, and fills a wall of the surgery's waiting room. Devised by long-standing WPS member Derek Reay, it comprises images contributed by WPS members. Buried within the panel are some black & white images, which are arranged to spell out a word related to the festival. It's not immediately obvious from the photo below, so a visit is essential! Our thanks to Derek for making this happen, and the members who contributed images.
	Top: the completed work Above left Members of the WPS and Fringe Committees Above: some of the WPS members who attended the opening Left: some of the many present on the evening Photos © Alan Cross ~ Posted 19 September 2004

As part of our summer programme of bonus meetings, we fixed an evening at Windsor races. Micki, who organised it (as Programme Secretary), said the next day: "Last night at the races was very successful indeed, with a very good turnout. It would be nice to make this an annual 'happening', and next year, let's do a picnic as well! Perhaps we'll start off our Bonus Summer Meeting with this venue....we'll see.

In the meantime, we had a group pic taken ........ "

Photo © Tony Aston ~ Posted 6 August 2004

It has been a concern of your Committee for some time that we are receiving a much greater number of print entries for some of our competitions. This is partly due the bias toward home digital printing, and partly due to the significantly higher number of members we now have.
This would be wonderful if we could comfortably handle the quantity! But you will be aware of the difficulty of displaying all your prints on the night. There has also been limited time for judges' comments, and an increasing number of occasions when we have had to ask the judge to go a bit faster!
The real problem is with the popular 'no set subject' (open) rounds of the Photographer of the Year competition, so this is the situation we are addressing. The Committee agreed by a majority vote last Thursday (29 July) to amend Rule 3 of the Photographer of the Year competition, to now read:

3. A member may submit up to three prints and up to three 35mm slides in the themed rounds, and up to two prints and up to three slides in the unthemed (i.e. no set subject) rounds.

This change will take effect from the beginning of the coming club year in September 2004. Any member who submits three prints in an open round will have to withdraw one of them. The Internal Competition Secretary will endeavour to contact you, but may have to drop one entry without referring back to you if you can't be contacted in time.
We will look at the impact of this rule change in the light of experience, and adjust its parameters or scope as necessary.
The full rules, as now revised, are on this web site. The change will also be announced at the meetings preceding the first round of the competition.
We trust this change will bring net benefit to the members of the WPS, in that you can concentrate your endeavours on producing just two good prints, and enjoy a fuller commentary by the judge on each on each of them.

Posted 2 August 2004

Photos © Chris Small ~ Posted 25 June 2004

Posted 20 April 2004

Posted 10 March 2004